Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is nothing normal about children being brought up in the homes of their grandparents. Twenty years ago a family would have been given a home within three years. Now children are eight or nine years old before they have an opportunity to live in their own home. This is a huge hidden problem. There is enormous pressure on those families who have to live in their parents' homes. I was in a house recently in which there were two rooms downstairs, one of which was the kitchen in which the grandparents were living. The other was the front room in which all of the children were living with their mother. It did not make sense.

I want to praise the local authorities in County Louth. I asked a question last week and will ask for the answer in a different way. I may not get it today. Despite the criticism, there is very good practice. I am the first to criticise the county councils in Dublin which were offered 2,000 houses by NAMA, of which they took less than 1,000. I have criticised Fingal County Council which was offered 270 houses by NAMA but took only 105. It dismisses our figures for the numbers of unoccupied homes. Louth County Council, however, is exceptional. It has sourced social housing in abandoned or vacant properties. I understand 50 units have been completed in this way this year. If every council in the country were to do the same, it would make a huge difference.

With the support of Mayo County Council, the Minister rightly set up a vacant or empty homes website. I read in the newspaper this morning that by September this year 10,000 queries had been made to the website. Will the Minister comment on the efforts made by Louth County Council and do what he can to ensure other councils will do what it is doing so effectively? It is one thing to turn the sod to build houses, but these are houses which are already available. They have doors into which we can fit keys.